his first official visit as the British PM's spouse to the G20 summit in July 2017 at Hamburg, Germany. During the visit, he attended gala concerts and took boat trips with the spouses of other world leaders. On 27 January 2019, The Sunday Times reported Theresa May's chief of staff Lord Barwell broke ranks to accuse Philip May of "scuppering" plans to offer the Labour Party a permanent customs union with the EU to try to push the withdrawal agreement through parliament. May is said to have encouraged his wife to seek changes to the deal by removing the Irish backstop, in order for it to be approved by parliament with the support of the DUP and Brexiteer MPs. In July 2020, he was knighted in Boris Johnson's belated (2019) Dissolution Honours. He formally received the honour in October 2021 from the Prince of Wales. Personal life May and his future wife, then Theresa Brasier, met as undergraduates at Oxford, being introduced by Benazir Bhutto at a Conservative Party student event. They further bonded over a shared love of cricket, and were married on 6 September 1980 by Theresa's father, Hubert Brasier. As the spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, May avoided giving interviews or making public statements but did accompany his wife for a joint interview on the BBC One programme The One Show prior to the 2017 general election. During this interview, Theresa May admitted her sadness, for health reasons, she and Philip have not been able to have children, saying: "You look at families all the time and you see there is something there that you don't have". Also in the interview, May said: "I get to decide when I take the bins out. Not if I take them out", and commented, "I do the traditional boy jobs by and large." Asked about the downside to being married to the Prime Minister, May insisted it was a privilege, saying: "If you're the kind of man who expects his tea to be on the table at six o'clock every evening, you could be a disappointed man." Arms Notes References 1957 births Living people People educated at Calday Grange Grammar School People from Norwich Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) people English bankers Presidents of the Oxford Union Spouses of prime ministers of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Husbands of national leaders